Process of and apparatus for transferring liquefied gases



April 23, 1935. H, LAGARDE 1,998,629

PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSFERRING LIQUEFIED GASES Filed Aprilr'. 1932 wl* Attorneys Patented Apr. 23, 1935 v l i PROCESS F AND APPARATUS FORl TRANS- FERRING LIQUEFIED GASES Henri Lagarde, La Varenne, France, assignor to lAir Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour IEtude & lExploitation des Procedes Georges Claude, Paris, France Application April 7, 1932, Serial No. 603,888 In Germany April 8, 1931 11 claims. (o1. 62-1) It is known that in the manufacture of .liqueresults in a somewhat great space being taken up. fied gases, for example oxygen, in liquefying and The present invention has particularly for its rectifying apparatus, it is desirable that the object to obviate these drawbacks. According to liquefied gas to be further utilized be kept in the the invention the liquefied gas is conducted in a apparatus at as low a pressure as is possible. first vessel, passes through a valve into a second 5 One of the principal ,reasons for this is the vessel, and, after this valve is closed, is discharged following: as the liquid contained in the rectifyunder pressure out of th'e second vessel while the ing apparatus is subsequently drawn off from the first vessel is simultaneously iilled under a lower apparatus, the pressureldrop which results from pressure with liqueed gas. this drawing ofi causes the liquid to be partly Preferably, the rst vessel is adjacent to the lo vaporized. Since this vaporization increases as second vessel and, for example, is disposed in the drop in pressure increases, it is desirable that the interior and at the upper part of this sec'- the pressure-drop be reduced to the minimum ond vessel; the capacity of the iirst vessel is value possible, i. e. to a few hundred grams per -such as it may collect the liquefiedgasproduced 15 sq. cm. p q in the rectifying column during the time the 15 It is also known that in order to store the liqueliquefied gas is ydrawn off from the second vesiiedgasnafter its manufacture, it is collected in sel and transferred into a transportable vessel. carefully heatl-insulated storage vessels and that, Only one storage vessel is therefore necessary in order to transport the liquefied gas to the conand consequently the space taken up is much sumption place, it is transferred into transportreduced and furthermore the operations of trans- 20 able vessels mounted on lorries, railway-cars, etc. ferring the liquefied gas necessitate a minimum -This transfer may be obtained by gravity, by of valves to be manipulated. l

placing the rectifying apparatus and the storage In the accompanying drawing is diagrammativessel at a certain height above the transportable cally illustrated a device for carrying out -the vessel. -But this dispostion of the installation present invention. I

would not prove practical, for it would result in This device comprises a storage vessel a for a considerable height of this installation. A liqueed gases, disposed within a mantle c from special pump for liquefied gases may be also which it is insulated by a suitable heat-insulatutilized, as previously known, for the purpose of ing material, such as carbonate of magnesia. A

l transferring the liquefied gas from one vessel small 'auxiliary container b is fixed at the top 30 into another vessel. But it is sometimes advanof the vessel a by suitable means, e. g. by chains tageous to obtain automatically this transfer by i. This container b can communicate with the means of a gaseous pressure exerted above the vessel a only through the orice a', that can liquefied gas in the vessel to be emptied; unforbe closed by the valve e, and through the pipes tunately this process can be seldom carried out, and h', the latter being providedwith a valve 35 when the storage vessel is connected to the recti- 7'- The Pipes h and h' terminate in a common fying apparatus, as the pressure created above conduit y, through which the evaporated gas the liquid in the storage vessel practically preescapes and iS fOI' eXamiJle passed iIlO a gasOmvents the liqueiied rgas from 'flowing from lthe eter. Through a 'conduit u, provided with a y 40 rectifying apparatus into the storage vessel. This valve x, normally closed, the gas may be rapidly 40"" stopping of the flow of the liquefied gas from the drawn off from the vessel a. A pipe 1', ValVed rectifying apparatus would entail an undesirable at s, is 'connected to the conduit u and serves for disturbance in this rectifying apparatus. Therethe admission of gas under pressure into the fore two separate storage vessels are resorted to, vessel a. which alternately receive the liquid and deliver The liquefied gas coming from the rectifying 45 it also alternately. One of the two storage vesapparatus (not shown), is passed through the sels is alternately connected to the rectifying pipe d; the liquefied gas is discharged from the columnand collects the liquid coming from this vessel a through the pipe 1L, p, which is concolumn, while a gaseous pressure isapplied in nected to a'transport vessel (not shown); this the interior of the other storage vessel, disconpipe may be closed by a valve o. 50 nected from the column, in order that thetrans- The storage vessel a is of course provided with portable vessel be iilled with the liqueed'gas the usual fittings (pressure gage, safety-valve, from the storage vessel. But this 'process with etc.)

alternate voperations is relatively expensive as it The working of ,the apparatus is as follows:

necessitates practically a double equipment and during the lling operation of the storage ves 55 Cil sel a, the valve e and :i are open, the valves o m and s are closed. The liquefied gas comes from the rectifying apparatus through d; it is discharged into the container b, passes through the orifice a and is collected in thestorage vessel a.. The gas produced by the vaporization of the liqueed gas escapes out of the vessel through the pipe h and the open valve 7'.

When it is desired to draw ofi the liquefied gas from the storage vessel a and to fill a transport vessel. this transport vessel is connected to the pipe p, and the valves e and 'y' are closed. By the pipe r and the open valve s a gas under pressure is admitted into the vessel a, thus creating the gaseous pressure necessary to the transfer of the liquefied gas from the storage vessel a. The valve o is then opened and the transport Vessel is filled. During the time of this filling operation, the liquefied gas coming from the rectifying apparatus flows into the container b,

where it is stored and the evaporated gas escapesfrom this container through pipes h and y.v

When the filling of the transport vessel is completed, the valve o is closed and the gas under pressure contained in the vessel a is discharged through the pipe u and the open valve rc, the valve s being closed. The-valves e and 7' are thereafter opened; thus the liquefied gas contained in b will flow into the vessel a through the orifice a and the vessel a acts again as a storage vessel for storing the liquefied gas coming from the rectifying apparatus.

The liquefied gas can be transferred from the storage vessel into the transport vessel by utilizing simultaneously a gaseous'pressure above the liquid in the storage vessel and a pump which forces the liquefied gas from the storage vessel into the transport vessel.

. It is quite obvious that the vessels a and b may present otherforms than the form illustratedgin the drawing by way of an example and may be constructed so as to be suitable for the different cases to be encountered. For example, thecon'tainer b may be placed above the vessel a argifin the 'interiorof the heat-insulating materiait'which surrounds a, instead of being situated inthe interior of the vessel a, as illustrated in the drawing.

What I claim is:

1. An apparatus for filling and drawing off liquefied gases which comprises a storage vessel, an intermediate vessel disposed in the interior of said storage Vessel, an opening at the lowest part of said intermediate vessel, means for closing said opening, Ia filling conduit for admitting liquefied gas into the intermediate vessel, a dis- 'charge conduit for drawing off the liquefied gas from the storage vessel, and means for admitting gas under pressure into said storage Vessel.

2. An. apparatus as claimed 'in claim 1, in which the intermediate vessel is disposed at the top of the storage vessel.

3. An apparatus as in claim 1 in which the upper part of, the intermediate vessel is constituted by the upper part of the storage vessel.

4. An apparatus for filling and drawing off liquefied gases which comprises a storage vessel, an intermediate vessel disposed in the interior of said storage vessel, an opening at the lowest part of said intermediate vessel, means for closing said opening, a filling conduit for admitting liquefied gas into the intermediate vessel, a conduit for the escape from the intermediate vessel of the gases produced in this vessel by vaporization of liquefied gas, a discharge conduit for drawing off the liquefied gas from the storage vessel, and means for admitting gas under pressure into said storage vessel.

5. An apparatus for filling and drawing ofi liquefied gases which comprises a storage vessel,

an intermediate vessel disposed in the interior of of the gases produced in this vessel by vapori-` zation of liquefied gas, and a second valved conduit for the escape from the storage vessel of the gases produced in this vessel by vaporization of the liquefied gas.

6. An apparatus for filling and drawing off liquefied gases which'comprises a storage vessel, an intermediate vessel disposed inthe interior of said storage vessel, an opening at the-lowest part of said intermediate vessel, means for closing said opening, 'a filling conduit for admitting liquefied gasy intoU the intermediate vessel, a discharge conduitfor drawing ofi the liquefied gas from the storage vessel, means forV admitting gas under pressure into said storage vessel, a conduit for the escape from the intermediate vessel of the gases produced in this vessel by vaporization of liquefied gas and a second valved conduit for conducting into the first conduit the gases produced in the storage vessel by vaporization of liquefied gas.

7. An apparatus for filling and .drawing ofi' liquefied gases which comprises a storage vessel, an intermediate vessel disposed in the interior of said storage vessel, an opening at the lowest part of said intermediate vessel, means for closing said opening, a filling conduit for admitting liquefied gas into the intermediate Vessel, a discharge conduit for drawing off the liquefied gas from the storage vessel, and means for admitting gas under pressure into said storage vessel, the capacity of the intermediate vessel being large enough to collect and store the liquefied gas .discharged into said vessel during the period of drawing off under pressure the liquefied gas from the storage vessel.

8. A process for simultaneously discharging a liquefied gas from a gas liquefying plant and drawing off the liquefied discharged gas which comprises, collecting the liquefied gas produced by the liquefying plant in a first collecting confined space, drawing off the thus collected lique-l fied gas to a second collecting confined space, suppressing said drawing off between the two collecting confined spaces and drawing ofi liquefied gas from the second collecting confined space by means of a gaseous pressure while simultaneously collecting in the first collecting confined space under a lower pressure than the above gaseconfined space under a lower pressure than the above gaseous pressure the liquefied gas produced by the liquefying plant.l i

10. A process for simultaneously discharging a 5 liqueedgas 4from a gas liquefying plant 4and drawing off the liquefied discharged. gas which comprises, collecting the liquefied g'as produced by the liquefying plant in a rst co1 ecting confined space, drawing oi the thus collected lique- 10 Vfied gas to a second collecting confined space, supi 15 collecting in the rst collecting conned space pressing said drawing off between the two collecting confined spaces, drawing off' liquefied gas from the second collecting confined space by means of a gaseous pressure while simultaneously under a lower pressure than the above gaseous y pressure the liquefied gas produced by the liquefying plant, releasing the pressure in the second collecting confined space and drawing oi the 20 liqueed gas collected in the rst collecting conned space to the second collecting space.

11. A process for simultaneously discharging liquefying plant.

a liquefied gas from a gas liquefying plant and drawing off the liquefied dischargedgas which comprises, collecting the liqueed gas produced by the liquefying plant in a first collecting confined space, allowing the gases evaporated in said two collecting conned spaces, suppressing the escaping of the gases evaporated in the second collecting confined space and drawing off liqueed gas from the second` collecting confined space by means of a gaseous pressure while simultaneously collecting in the first collecting confined space under a lower pressure than the above gaseous pressure the liquefied gas produced by the HENRI LAGARDE. 

